It's been awhile....!!!

Wow - I guess it takes waking up at 5 AM with nothing to do but randomly search the internet for me to even remember starting a blog! I had totally forgotten about this one and only remembered the one I used when I was pregnant. Thanks Blogspot for reminding me! It's been SOOO long since I last blogged and I think things finally feel normal enough for me to start writing again! Please try to contain your excitement and not wet yourselves.

Things here are going great! It has a been an eventful year that has just flown by! Lily is 10 1/2 months and is quickly approaching her 1 year birthday! The party planning is in full swing.. :) We are awaiting her first steps still, hopefully soon, she has been crawling since 6 1/2 months!! She has becoming quite the little speed demon crawler though with all of this practice...and the first place she always goes....the KITCHEN, which we can't really babyproof because we're renting..SO I typically clean up the kitchen on average about 10-12 times a day. I do realize I could let her mess it up once and then wait until the end of the day to clean...but I can't stand all the clutter!!!!!!

Since I missed out on blogging during the important months of months 2-10 (yes, almost her entire life thus far) I will give a short recap below:

- 8 weeks, starting sleeping through the night and never turned back!
- 3 months and 1 day, rolled over for the first time
- 3 months and 3 weeks, actively rolling over
- 6 months, sitting up & saying "mama"!
- 6 1/2 months, crawling
- 7 1/2 months, Lily's 1st vacation - Kauai!
- 8 months, starting to say "nana" and "baba"
- 9 months, pulling up to standing on furniture
- 10 months, cruising around furniture and saying the long awaited "dada"!!!
- 10 1/2 months, standing solo for up to 10 seconds & walking with assistance

She is turning into quite the little ham! She is such a chatter box and is constantly cracking herself up. Recently she started doing this fake laugh thing where she giggles anytime anyone else laughs...not because she thinks it's funny but because she thinks she's supposed to. It is hilarious! She has so much personality and is so social with all of her friends. Most of her baby friends are boys but recently we started hanging out with a new friend of mine, Kelly, and her 8 month baby girl, Madilyn. Lily LOVES Madilyn...like loves her so much that she has gone up and sat right next to her (almost on her) and held her hand. It is SO cute.

Lily's favorites this week....pulling my hair while laughing, grabbing Thad's ears and nose and trying to rip them off of his skull, getting SO excited anytime she sees Nana that her arms & legs flail around like a fish out of water, pushing her new ride along toy around the house while walking....and taking her diaper off all by herself when Mommy is not looking.

Healthy(ier) Food Find of the week.....No Pudge Fudge Brownie Mix! This mix is all natural and fat free. All you do is add 2/3 cup of fat free vanilla or plain yogurt...mix it, pat it and mark it with a B, then stick it in the oven...and bam, awesome brownies with no fat and only 120 calories. YUM!

I am going to try to write every Friday....not so much for you but for me so that I have a journal of all these fun times! Hopefully I can stick to it!! Actually, if I keep suffering from insomnia I may be writing more frequently than that!

This week is exciting because 2 of my favorite aunts from PA are in town to meet Lily. They are so much fun and I'm sure we'll have a week filled with craziness, love & laughter for me to blog about next week!

Below is a pic of Lily with most of her buddies at a BBQ last weekend for your viewing pleasure! Yes, that dip is for them and they are in the middle of watching a football game.

-Mommy Out -

Lily's a growing girl!

Happy Sunday! I'm a day late this week with my blogging. Yesterday was filled with celebrating the upcoming arrival of Baby Fitz at Natasha's shower! It was lots of fun and gave Thad some alone time with Lily..which I'm sure he was thrilled about since it was during the Cardinals game. I don't think he minded actually...it's sounds like they had lots of fun together.

We had Lily's 2 month doctors appointment on Monday and she is tipping the scales at 10 pounds 15 ounces and is a whopping 23.5" tall! She is 75 percentile for height and 50 percentile for weight. Hopefully for the sake of being a great athlete, she is getting her daddy's height! She also had to get three shots which she handled like a champ. Now she has to go back for round 2 of her 2-month shots on Wednesday since we decided to split them up. Only 2 this time though.

Lily is so much more alert this week and is following voices and people across the room. She is smiling so much and is laughing a little even. If she is in a good mood and you play with her bottom lip with your finger, she smiles immediately....not quite sure how I found that one out but apparently she likes it! She absolutely loves her playmat and is constantly wanting me to rattle the toys that hang above her. She has started swatting at them but I can't tell if it's on purpose...no grabbing yet but it's a start!

What REALLY excites me is that I thought I was going to have to wait until the weather got warmer to take her to swim lessons but yesterday I found out that there is a place down the road with an inside heated pool that does water baby classes year round!!!!! SO EXCITED! I already called them to set it up and hopefully we can get started this week!

Below is a video of Lily smiling (please ignore my annoying Mommy voice)! I also have posted a few pics of her from this week! As always, you can click on each pic to see it in a larger format. Enjoy!

Lily is 2 months today!

Well I decided to start a brand new blog to document this brand new phase of our lives now that little Lily is a part of our family and more or less runs this place! She decides when we eat, when we sleep, when we go for walks, when we talk (she absolutely hates when I talk on the phone) and oh, did I mention when we sleep? No I shouldn't be complaining, she is such a good baby and is actually already letting us sleep quite a bit. For example, last night she went to bed at 8:30, woke up to eat once at 2 AM, then slept until 7. This has been going on for a couple of weeks. We're hoping that the 2 AM feeding will end and she will sleep through the night soon but we will see.

So Lily is 2 months today! I haven't blogged once in the past 2 months...I guess I have more important things to do with my time these days....such as wiping butts, mixing formula and making up ridiculous songs that make no sense what-so-ever to calm a fussy baby. So glad that I went to college! It is awesome though. I do feel like I was meant to do this and I am really enjoying every minute of it. Thad is a TREMENDOUS help and is the cutest dada ever. He even usually handles the 2 AM feeding and has become a pro at changing diapers. He is so in love with her. I have definitely become the #2 girl in Thad's life as of 11/9/09 - something I never thought would happen. Just when I think he couldn't possibly be more obsessed with her, he suggests taking her WITH US to our couples getaway to Tahoe instead of leaving her with my mom and brings about a whole new level of obsession. It is adorable though. It is already completely evident that Lily is a total daddy's girl and that Thad is going to spoil her rotten!

Lily is doing all sorts of new tricks including blowing bubbles of spit out of her mouth (it seems that she just started making lots of saliva this week), cooing like crazy and giving us infrequent but irresistable smiles that melt our hearts. I can't wait until she is smiling all day long! It is so much fun!! She seems to want to stand all of the time and she has super strong legs...we both fear she will be a very early walker by the amount of effort she is already putting into trying! My mom thinks she may just skip crawling & walking and go straight to running! She is a kicking machine also, which explains the insane kicks I felt during my pregnancy with her. We lay her on her activity mat or a blanket and she kicks nonstop. I told her we will start swim lessons soon to put that kicking to use!

Cali has been having some orthopedic issues with her hips and they said we need to get about 10 lbs off of her to help. They called her FAT! I covered her ears. The poor neglected dog now has to also deal with getting no people food from our dinner table. I think it's actually been harder for Thad who typically fills her bowl with any leftovers that we have. We all feel bad for our real first born, Cali, but we are trying hard to make her feel like she is still very important to us. Even in pain, she still manages to give Lily little kisses and try to be mommy #2. :)

Well that's about all for now. I have put some pics of her from this week below for your enjoyment. She has her 2 month doc appointment on Monday and we are all guessing how much she weighs & how tall she is. She eats like a champ so I'm hoping she gained at least a pound and a half since her last visit at 3 weeks. The poor girl has to get her first round of shots though...not looking forward to that at all :(